At a Glance

The Specs:
Solid cedar top. Laminated rosewood back and sides. Mahogany neck. Rosewood fretboard and bridge. Maple binding. Scalloped bracing. Dovetail neck joint. 25.5-inch scale. 1¹¹/₁₆-inch nut width. 2¹/₈-inch string spacing at saddle. Natural gloss finish. ComfortGrip tuners. Barcus Berry Realm III electronics, with four-band EQ, tuner, and ¹/₄-inch or XLR output jacks. D’Addario EXP16 light strings (.012–.053). Made in China.

This Is Cool:
Handsome natural design. Versatile built-in Barcus-Berry electronics.

Watch For:
Acoustic sound is a bit quiet.

Price:
$679 list/$479 street.

Maker:
Sierra Guitars: (800) 845-1922; sierraguitars.net.

Sierra Sunrise SAS40CE Review

California’s Sierra Nevada range has been divinely inspiring to countless explorers and travelers, and the natural beauty of the mountains is reflected in an earthy line of guitars designed in North Charleston, South Carolina, and made in China. Sierra Guitars boasts a number of different series with names inspired by the Sierra Nevada: Sequoia, Alpine, Tahoe, and others. We checked out one of the Sunrise series of auditorium-size guitars, the SAS40CE, an affordable acoustic-electric cutaway with a cedar top.

Organic Style and Comfort

Largely devoid of plastic parts, the SAS40CE is appealingly natural looking. The binding, soundhole ornamentation, and even the headstock logo are all made of maple, and the adornment is tastefully minimal throughout. There’s no back strip, heel cap, or superfluous inlay work, but the single flourish, a sunrise inlay at the 12th fret, underscores the guitar’s natural beauty. (In keeping with the guitar’s organic feel, Sierra uses post-consumer products for all its paper products: hangtags, soundhole labels, literature, and packaging.) The solid cedar top and laminate rosewood back and sides are attractively grained and of decent quality.

The craftsmanship on the SAS40CE is excellent. All of the binding is neatly flush with the neck and body, the frets are well dressed and cleanly seated, and the satin finish feels very inviting, as does the smooth Venetian cutaway. Inside the guitar, some of the scalloped bracing looked a little rough and could have been more attentively sanded, but it seems solid, with a minimum of glue visible.

With its auditorium-size body, the SAS40CE is easy to play for long periods of time. The medium-girth mahogany neck feels comfortable on everything from barre chords to swift single-note runs, from open position up to the 20th fret, and the action was perfect right out of the box. Sierra’s art deco–style ComfortGrip machine heads look handsome and fit snugly under the fingers, making tuning a snap, especially when making fine adjustments.

Warm, Cedar Tones

While most steel-string acoustics are built with spruce tops, the SAS40CE has a premium solid cedar top. More commonly used on nylon-string guitars, cedar is a softer wood and generally yields a warmer sound. The SAS40CE does indeed have a warmish sound that is well balanced across all registers and lends an attractive voice to the variety of styles I played on it: plain cowboy-style strumming, flatpicked ragtime, fingerpicking in open-G tuning, and others.

Plugged-in Diversity

While the SAS40CE sounds quite good at quiet to medium volumes, it lacks some of the liveliness and responsiveness of a more expensive guitar. But it really came alive when I plugged it into a Fender Acoustasonic amplifier. The built-in Barcus Berry Realm III electronics consist of an undersaddle pickup and onboard preamp, which are powered by a nine-volt battery located in a panel on the underside of the lower bout, along with ¹/₄-inch and XLR output jacks. Using the built-in four-band EQ on the side-mounted preamp, I was able to dial in a pleasingly wide range of sounds. The guitar’s electronics, which are very quiet, also include an easy-to-use built-in digital tuner, perfect for those moments when your tuner is not right at hand.

Natural Look, Solid Electronics

The Sierra SAS40CE is a beautifully designed, well-made guitar that is quite comfortable to play. Its unplugged tone, while warm, is a bit restricted, but it would be well-suited to a working pro concentrating on songwriting, and its amplified tone should appeal to many. The Sierra would also be a great choice for beginners looking to start out with a superior instrument.

New York City resident Adam Perlmutter is a former editor for Guitar One magazine. He transcribes, arranges, and engraves music for various publishers and individuals.